


Stitches

by thegalrahobbitofplantetgalilfrey



Series: In-Between Scenes [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Gen, In-Between Scenes, Post-Episode: s02e08 The Blade of Marmora, Stitches, allura hates keith oops, injuries
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-23
Updated: 2019-01-23
Packaged: 2019-10-14 20:38:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,678
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17515514
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thegalrahobbitofplantetgalilfrey/pseuds/thegalrahobbitofplantetgalilfrey
Summary: Anyone notice that in the background, Keith was holding the shoulder injured in the Trials of Marmora while Lance explained "The Plan" to Hunk back in season 2?Yeah, neither did I. I read it in a Tumblr post.Keith needs some serious stitches. And not just on his shoulder.This in-between takes place between Keith’s return from the Blade of Marmora and the discussion of the plan in the next episode.Teen rating is just for the stitches and minor bloodshed, as I'm aware that some people have extreme phobia of needles or blood





	Stitches

“Ah, hold it, number four. You need to get your shoulder looked at.”

Keith glanced at Coran, who had put his arm out to block Keith from going into the bridge. “What?”

“Shiro described the trials to me, and mentioned your shoulder wound. You need to have that looked at before you injure yourself further.”

“I’m fine, Coran.”

“Ah, ah, ah! I am our official ship’s doctor, and I am _ordering_ you to come with me to the medical bay.”

“Fine.”

Keith followed Coran down to the room with the cryo pods. Coran gestured to a table. “Sit, and take off your paladin armor breastplate and shoulder pads.”

Keith grudgingly obeyed, uncomfortable with the familiar weight of the armor gone. His shoulder really _did_ hurt, burning a little. Coran peeled back the black flight suit they wore under their armor and tutted disapprovingly.

“Look at this! It’s a mess! You were just going to sit there and leave this with no treatment?! Not on my watch!”

Keith steeled himself to look at the wound and winced. The cut was a wide, jagged tear that had severed some muscle, and the wound area was purple from bruising. The cut wasn’t a straight line, either, which would make it hard to stitch up, and it was bleeding again because of how the flight suit had been taken off. Coran shook his head.

“Keith, I realize that you are a strong and tough individual, but this is something that you can’t ignore! You’ve bled quite a bit here, and that cut is deep. You could’ve lost some use of your right arm if you hadn’t gotten help!”

Keith’s heart dropped to his shoes. Was it really that bad? “What are you going to do? Put me in a cryo pod? Because I don’t think that I should be missing out the war council.”

“No, you’re right, and besides, the cryo pods aren’t meant so much for wounds like this. They’re more for internal damage, and healing broken bones. We were lucky to get away with using it for Shiro.”

“So, what, do you have some other Altean miracle device?”

“They’re not miracles, Keith, although I can see why someone of your species current evolutionary stage would think so! No, they’re science. You see, the cryo pods—”

“No offense, Coran, but I really don’t care. I just want to be done here as soon as possible.”

“Well, alright then. I’m sorry to disappoint, but we do not have something that will heal your wound right up. We’re good, but we’re not the miracle workers you claim we are. I’m going to stitch up your wound, Keith. You’re not scared of needles, are you?”

“No.”

“Right, then. I’ll get what I need. You sit there. It’ll only take a tick.”

Coran ran off, and Keith waited, blood dripping from his shoulder to his chest. He put his left hand up to the wound with a wince. That couldn’t be good.

The door hissed open, and Allura walked in. Her eyes fixated on Keith. “Shiro told me… Keith- that blood- is it Galra?”

He nodded. “It is, Princess.”

Her mouth hardened into a firm line of disapproval, and she turned away, her shoes tapping down the med bay to wherever Coran had gone. Keith sighed. Being Galra hadn’t been a bad thing until she’d given him that look. It had been just another fact of life to swallow. His dad was dead. He had discipline issues. Shiro was dead. He was supposed to fly a magical red lion of fire. Said red lion was on a Galra ship. He was a Galra.

But Allura- her face had made it seem like it was the worst possible thing to happen to him. Like being Galra changed everything about him.

Allura’s footsteps came tapping back, this time with Coran. “-and we need you back at the bridge,” she was saying as she came into view, “They also want _him_.”

Him. Yep, that was Keith. _Him_.

“We’ll be there in a few dobashes, Princess. He’s got an ugly shoulder wound, and I don’t want to leave it as it is for any longer than necessary.”

“I understand. Don’t take too long about it.”

“No, Princess.”

Allura tapped off, and Coran set down a pile of medical supplies. Bandages, gauze, a cream, two bottles of different liquids and, of course, a surgical needle and thread.

“Right. We need to stop that bleeding.”

Coran pressed a patch of gauze to Keith’s wound, applying pressure and counting to ten before removing it, checking the blood flow and trying again. He repeated until the blood stopped flowing and then he opened one of the bottles, pouring its contents onto a cotton-looking cloth and wiping it across Keith’s shoulder, scrubbing gently at the blood.

Keith let out an involuntary yelp. The liquid _stung_! Coran drew back.

“I’m sorry- is something wrong? I’ve used this on the other paladin’s cuts, and it didn’t seem to hurt them.”

Keith shook his head. “It’s okay. It’s okay. Keep going.”

Coran’s face creased. “Oh! We never took into account your half-Galra DNA. We assumed that what would work on the other paladins would work on you. Hold on half a tick. I’ve got to pull up your scans.”

“No- it’s okay. Really, it’s fine. Keep going. You can do that later, when we don’t need to get to a war council.”

“Are you sure? If it’s causing you pain—”

“I’m okay, really, Coran. It doesn’t hurt any more than the anti-bacterial swabs on earth.”

“Oh, yes, Shiro told me about those,” Coran remarked cheerfully as he continued to clean Keith’s wound, evidently in an attempt to take Keith’s mind off of the sting, “Imagine it, using _alcohol_ to clean wounds! It’s effective, I know, but so _barbaric_! Altea moved past those days, thank the ancients. There you are, I’ll just numb the area. Tell me if it hurts, because this is important to get right.”

Coran rubbed the area with liquid from his second bottle, and Keith’s shoulder went blissfully numb. Coran pulled out the needle and thread and got to work. Keith tried not to look.

“Is it going to scar?”

“Probably. The wound is deep and wide. There’s not much of a chance that it _won’t_ scar, to be honest. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. It was my own fault.”

“I suppose. There you are. All stitched up. You’d best be careful, though. If you rip open the stitches, you’ll bleed again, and that could be catastrophic during a mission.” Coran opened up the little tube and squirted some kind of cream over the stitches that hardened almost immediately. “That should protect it somewhat, and I’ll wrap your shoulder in bandages in the case that stitches _do_ rip out- we’ll want to keep pressure on the wound. We’ll have to do that after the council, though, because Allura will have our hides if we’re much later.”

“Thank you, Coran.”

“Of course, Keith. Now, I believe we have a war council to get to?”

Keith followed Coran back down the hallway to the bridge. Hunk had fallen asleep, and Allura gave Keith an icy look that turned warm when she turned to Coran. “Are you finished?”

“Right as rain now!”

The next hour was a pool of information. The Blade gave Voltron all of the inside knowledge they’d gained through their spy in Zarkon’s base, and Allura shared what she’d known from before, as well as what they’d learned through the black lion and its bond with Shiro. Hunk fell asleep in the first few minutes, and kept sleeping.

Allura called a half-vargas break, and Keith let out a sigh of relief. He wanted to check on his shoulder in private or at least find some Altean pain meds. It was starting to ache again, the sharp pain from the stitches entering his body as the numbing that Coran had used wore off.

Pidge and Lance didn’t seem to want to allow him that. Pidge was first, tapping his uninjured shoulder. “Keith? Shiro told us that you were half Galra, and based on the drop of temperature in the room when you came in, I’m assuming it’s true.”

“Drop in temperature?”

Pidge nodded towards Allura. “From the Ice Princess over there. She seems rather displeased. Anyway, what is it like?”

“I’m sorry?”

“Being half-Galra! What is it like?”

“You’re not angry at me?”

“What? Why?”

“Because your brother and father…”

“I mean, it’s not like _you_ kidnapped them.” Pidge squinted at him. “Did you?”

“No.”

“Right. So, no harm done. Anyway, what’s being half-Galra like?”

“It’s not like I know what it was like to _not_ be half-Galra.”

Pidge’s face fell. “Oh. I didn’t think of that. But what about your knife? It turns into a sword, right? Can I see?”

“Um- I don’t think I can do it on demand.”

“Oh. By the way, Lance has been swearing up and down that he knew you were Galra all along. I think he just wants to make up for the embarrassment of not knowing that I was a girl.”

“Okay. Um- I’ve got to take care of something…”

Pidge shrugged and went off to talk to Coran, and Keith walked towards the door with a sigh of relief. That relief only lasted for, by his estimation, 0.0001 seconds.

“Hey, I heard you got your butt handed to you by the blade dudes.” Lance. How fantastic. “Kinda pathetic.”

Keith’s head snapped towards him. “Like you could have done any better,” he snapped, “You would have passed out in round one!”

“Yeah, right!”

“You couldn’t even handle Ulaz with us backing you up! You think you could handle nine or ten of him?!”

Lance growled at him. “I would have handled him just fine if you hadn’t gotten in my way!”

“Lance,” Allura called from across the bridge, “Please stop arguing and shouting. It’s not worth it. There’s no point, and it’s beneath you.”

The ice in her tone perfectly implied _it’s beneath you to argue with one of ** **them****_.

Keith had trained himself not to flinch when someone insulted him, as Allura’s tone and lack of reprimand to _him_ had implied. He wasn’t worth the reprimand. There was no point, and it was beneath her.

Lance, however, clearly hadn’t trained himself, even when the insult was directed at someone else, because he winced. “Ouch. That was cold.” He started towards Keith as the red paladin stormed towards the door. Hey- man- you okay? I was just joking, you know- picking a fight. The blades are really good fighters- it’s okay that you got the quiznek beaten out of you.”

“Lance? Two things. First: leave me alone. Second: at least make an _effort_ to use that word properly.”

Keith stalked away from the room, ducking into the nearest empty bedroom- not his, his was closer to the training deck- and yank off the top of his armor, wincing when it brushed his shoulder. He peeled back his flight suit and winced at the angry red and purple skin surrounding his stitched-up wound. Coran hadn’t had time to wrap any bandages around it, and for that, Keith was actually grateful. He turned on the hot water in an adjoined bathroom and grabbed a washcloth, soaking it in steaming hot water before turning the water off.

Keith wrung out the washcloth, squeezing out the water, and then folded it up, putting the blissfully warm cloth on his shoulder and pulling his flightsuit back on over it. It would likely be uncomfortable in about half an hour when it got cold, but he didn’t particularly care. Thinking ahead had never been his strong suit. He pulled his paladin armor back on, the shoulder pad hiding the odd lump of the washcloth.

It was good that he managed to get the pad on at that moment, because about two seconds later, Allura walked in the bathroom.

“Excuse me,” she said in an icily brusque tone, “I need to use the toilet.”

Keith wordlessly exited the bathroom, avoiding her eyes. Her eyes showed the hatred that she hid with her cold exterior. He glanced at the clock, and then back at the bridge. He needed to get away from all of the people. Recharge. Prepare himself to deal with Allura’s icy indifference. He still had fifteen minutes before the end of break.

He headed for the training deck, but the door wouldn't open. He frowned and put his hand on the lock.

 _Apologies, Keith Kogane_ , the monotone computer voice told him, _but you have been locked out of the training deck_.

 _Great. Thank you so much, Allura_. ****_Real_**** _mature_.

Keith opened the door to his room, and a blast of cold air hit him, the inside of his room the approximate temperature of a freezer. He shivered, making his way through the room to the thermostat. It blinked confusedly at him, stuck on the temperature it was set on.

 _Ice Princess is right_ , Keith thought wryly. She might need him for Voltron. But that didn’t particularly mean that she had to be friendly about it.

Xxx

“You okay? You look… cold,” Shiro finished diplomatically.

“Th-thermostat’s broken,” Keith shivered as he took his place on the bridge, “I’ll have P-Pidge fix it later.” No need to get everybody angry at Allura, not right now when they needed to be united more than ever. No, this was between him and the Altean personally.

Keith listened as Allura, Shiro and Kolivan made a plan, occasionally giving his own insight, which was accepted by Shiro and Kolivan but rejected by Allura. He wondered what he would have to do to regain her acceptance. They’d had a friendship- it was mostly based on the two of them sharing their insecurities the night they’d run away- but whatever friendly feelings she’d had towards him was gone, destroyed by the revelation that he was half-Galra. It was ripped so far apart that it needed stitches even more than his shoulder had

He didn’t understand. Nothing had changed; he hadn’t suddenly turned purple, or sprouted cat ears. Nothing about _him personally_ had changed. It was just a new fact. It didn’t affect him, because he always _had been_ half-Galra. Knowing it didn’t change anything.

Allura and Kolivan were haggling out the final details. The plan was risky, but not much more than usual. Keith just worried because of the number of components that could go wrong. If he and Hunk didn’t collect enough skultrite. If Shiro, Lance and Pidge couldn’t manage to rescue this genius. If something went wrong during the fight because- because Allura wasn’t quite through being icy towards him.

 _Don’t be stupid_ , he told himself, _She won’t want anything to happen to the red lion, because then Voltron would be incapacitated_.

Allura and Kolivan finally reached an agreement, but Keith could see that Allura was loathe to trust the blade operative that Kolivan had in the base. Or Kolivan and the blade in general.

“Shiro?”

Shiro looked away from all of the holograms. “Yeah?”

“Kolivan made me an offer. To join the Blade.”

“Keith, you’re part of Voltron. Can you handle being part of both?”

“I think it will be good. I’m going to take him up on that offer. It’ll make bridges between Voltron and the Blade.”

Shiro smiled. “That’s a great idea, Keith. See, I knew that you had it in you to be a leader. This proves it. Thinking of the team, and how we can make stronger alliances.”

Keith gave a brief smile in return. He didn’t want to tell Shiro the truth.

That he wanted to be in another part of the fight, just in case.

If his part in this war fell apart, he wanted to have a needle and thread to stitch it back up with.

Because if Allura kicked him out, he wanted to have a backup plan, somewhere to go.

Because it was probably a matter of when, not if.

Across the room, Hunk woke himself up snoring.

 

**Author's Note:**

> As always, if anyone has a suggestion of an in-between time, I'm happy to take them! Just comment!


End file.
